


Last Respects

by Knightess



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 20:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3264053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knightess/pseuds/Knightess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of one journey and the start of another, Shay pays his last respects to Colonel George Monro.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Respects

It was on Shay's return from the Arctic, searching for any leads he might find on the Precursor box, that he took the _Morrigan_ for a stopoff at Albany. He'd left Haytham behind in Boston, and the Grand Master had said he was happy to leave the rest of the hunt for the box in Shay's capable hands. How long it would be before they crossed paths again face-to-face, he didn't know. He was sure of only one thing: that his search for the artifact would send him across the globe, away from the colonies, and it might be a pursuit that could take the rest of his life.  
  
For that reason, he had a visit to make. He went to the graveyard of St. Peter's; there he found a nondescript gravestone, with no markers, no significance or honours placed upon it. Few knew it, for it was kept a secret, but Colonel George Monro had been laid beneath the earth here three years ago. The man had died blaming himself for the surrender and ensuing massacre at Fort William Henry, and had wanted to be laid to rest with nothing to glorify him, such was his guilt.  
  
Shay could relate to the feeling all too well. He looked at the grave for a moment, and finally gathered the words, and the courage, for what he wished to say.  
  
“Colonel,” Shay said softly, “I know you wanted to be forgotten. But I was never your subordinate, nor any good at following orders.” He kneeled, to get a better look at the unremarkable gravestone, shunted into an unremarkable corner of the churchyard. A small, defiant smile tugged at his lips, as if it were the old days again. “I'm going away awhile. I never had a chance to say this properly before, so...” He laid a single red aster on the grave. A small gesture for a man who would have preferred no gesture at all. He might even have laughed at the ironic Frenchness of it. But the meaning behind it, such as it was, felt appropriate.  
  
“Goodbye, Colonel. You were a good man. A noble man. Better than I'll ever be.”  
  
Shay moved to stand again. Then, with a heavy heart, he turned from the grave, and toward the future.  
  
“May the Father of Understanding watch over you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Asters were laid on the graves of French soldiers, and symbolise a wish that things had turned out differently.


End file.
